The Bonding (episode)
Worf decides to adopt the child of a slain subordinate, but the child is having trouble accepting his mother's death, especially when she mysteriously reappears. Summary The ship encounters a planet that appears to be uninhabitated. The captain sends an away team to investigate, led by Worf. The Captain learns that the planet was once inhabited, but due to a war, every last person on the planet was annihilated; the civilization seems to have killed itself off. An accident happens to the away team; One of the members of the away team stumbles upon an old mine and is pronounced dead on arrival to the ship. The captain and Worf feel understandably very disturbed by this senseless death. The captain learns that the deceased crew member is survived only by a 12-year old son. The son is now an orphan, as his father died when the boy was a child. The captain breaks the news to the boy, who takes it bravely, but muses that he is completely alone now. Captain Picard reminds him that on the Starship, no one is ever alone. Worf still feels very unsettled with the situation, understandbly as he was also orphaned by parents who died in the line of duty. He feels awful for the senseless death of the crew member, and has the idea of protecting the boy through a Klingon ritual that will bond the two together for life. Background information This episode introduced Ronald D. Moore to the Star Trek writing fold, something he would be part of for 10 years across three incarnations of Trek. Ronald D. Moore's own words on his introduction: :"I had been in L.A. for about three years, and I was doing an odd series of jobs – I was a messenger, I was an animal hospital receptionist… I did all kinds of things. Then I started dating this girl, and she had a connection to ''Star Trek: The Next Generation because she had helped work on the pilot, and she knew that I was a big fan of the original series. I had, like, books and posters and stuff in my apartment – I was a big fan of the old show. Next Gen was in its second season at that point, and she said, "You know, I could get you a tour of the sets." And I thought, "Oh, my god! I'd love to see the sets! It's be amazing!" It took, like, four weeks to set it up, and in the interim I just sorta decided to take a shot, and I sat down and wrote an episode. And I brought it with me. The guy who was giving the set tour, I conned him into reading it, and he turned out to be one of Gene Roddenberry's assistants. He really liked it, and he gave it to my first agent. She submitted it through the front door to the show, and it went into the slush pile. And it sat in the slush pile for about seven months. When the third season began, a new executive producer came on board – Michael Piller – and he went through the slush pile, and found it and bought it and produced it, and asked me to do a second one."'' Originally, the story was written to deal with young Jeremy Aster's loss of his mother and how the alien being saw this need and tried to fulfill it. Gene Roddenberry told Michael Piller that children in the 24th century would deal with death in a more understanding way than shown in the original script. This gave Michael Piller the idea to put a spin on the story which became the completed episode after a re-write by Ronald D. Moore. Quotes "Jeremy, on the starship ''Enterprise, no one is ever alone."'' :- Captain Jean-Luc Picard Links and references Guest stars *Gabriel Damon as Jeremy Aster *Susan Powell as Marla Aster *Colm Meaney as Miles O'Brien Co-Starring *Raymond D. Turner as the teacher (scenes cut) *Lorine Mendell as Diana Giddings (uncredited) Parts played by unknown performers * Martinez References antimatter; antimatter containment field; antimatter containment pod; Archaeology and anthropology officer; archaeology; Ceremonial chamber; computer access room; Crusher, Jack; d'k tahg; death; Earth; Federation; force field; Kingdom Come; Klingons; Klingon language; Koinonian; Koinonian homeworld; Koinonian Wars; magnetic flux; non-corporeal; Patches; Romulan Neutral Zone; Romulans; R'uustai; radiation; Rushton infection; school; Security alert; shield harmonics; Starfleet; subspace proximity detonator; trap; tricorder; Yar, Tasha Bonding, The de:Mutterliebe es:The Bonding nl:The Bonding